Hulk Hogan: 'Gladiator' co-host Laila Ali stopped me from suicide try

By Christopher Rocchio, 10/21/2009

Terry "Hulk Hogan" Bollea claims that he came "damn close" to killing himself until he received a phone call from a co-worker.

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In his new book "My Life Outside the Ring," Hogan says he was contemplating suicide after drinking a rum and Xanax cocktail in December 2007 before a call from American Gladiators' co-host Laila Ali prevented him from ending his life, the New York Daily Newsreported Wednesday.

According to Hogan, a combination of "going to [a] strip club, drinking, getting all that attention from girls" and coming back to an empty home had led him to the point where he was reaching for a gun and contemplating suicide.

However before he could pull the trigger, Hogan claims he was interrupted by a phone call from Ali, who had noticed he'd appeared distracted earlier in the day at work and prevented him from ending his life, the Daily News reported.

"My Life Outside the Ring" will be released by St. Martin Press on Tuesday.

Hogan also accuses his ex-wife Linda of being an alcoholic and abusive mother in the new book, according to the Daily News, which added he recounts one incident when she threatened to beat their teenage son Nick with a wine bottle.

That ugly incident apparently occurred after the August 2007 car crash in which Nick was illegally racing Hogan's 1998 Toyota Supra on a public street and lost control of the vehicle, resulting in it hitting a raised median, spinning and striking a palm tree.

Nick's front-seat passenger John Graziano subsequently spent several weeks in critical condition and was only recently released from the hospital, however he suffered permanent brain damage and will continue to receive 24-hour care for the foreseeable future.

Following a more than two month investigation by police, Nick was arrested on charges of reckless driving involving serious bodily injury; using a motor vehicle in commission of a felony; being a driver under 21 operating a vehicle with a breath-alcohol level of 0.02% or higher; and having illegal window tinting.

He was released from Pinellas County Jail last October after serving 166 days of the eight-month sentence. Graziano's attorneys filed a civil lawsuit last year, seeking millions of dollars to pay for the former U.S. Marine's medical expenses. Nick, Hogan and Linda were named in the suit -- which Hogan claims in his new book is "for more money than I've made in my whole career."

As if all those difficulties weren't bad enough, Hogan added that he was especially hurt by Linda's divorce filing that was settled this past July.

"I practically begged her, 'Please, don't file. Our son's just had this accident - if we do this now, it'll make us look like the Britney Spears family. Please, don't file for divorce,'" recalls Hogan in the book, according to the Daily News.

The book also addresses the Hogan's family stint on their own VH1 reality show Hogan Knows Best, which the former wrestler said wasn't a very accurate portrayal of how the family was really doing.

"In public, we were all having the time of our lives, but that public image only further masked the problems that were growing behind the scenes," Hogan writes.

"There were plenty of times when Linda would lose it, but no one wanted to see that kind of ugliness on TV."